Mental health workers go to Alberta

A team of 20 B.C. mental health workers is on its way to Fort McMurray to assist as people evacuated from forest fires prepare to return home.

The therapists and other specialists are volunteering their time after receiving training from B.C.’s Disaster Psychosocial Program. They are joining four staff members from Emergency Management B.C. who arrived in Edmonton last week to help plan the return of more than 80,000 people who have been displaced.

B.C. Wildfire Service has nearly 200 firefighters and support staff in Alberta, in addition to the crews working to contain the Siphon Creek fire that has spread east into Alberta from northern B.C.

The B.C. government has donated $300,000 to the Canadian Red Cross, and BC Liquor Store customers have donated nearly $400,000 as collection continues at stores across the province.

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